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Product Guide for the Septuagint

The Septuagint (commonly abbreviated "LXX") is a Greek translation of the Old Testament. It is one of the earliest translations of the Old Testament available, completed before New Testament times. As such, the Septuagint is valuable both to classical scholars and Biblical scholars because it provides a snapshot of Hellenistic Judaism at the time of the translation of the Septuagint. Today, more than 2000 years after the Septuagint was completed, we can see how Hebrew terms and concepts were translated into Greek for use by Hellenistic Jews. This provides insight to students of the whole Bible, both the Old and New Testaments. Old Testament scholars can garner a better understanding of how the Old Testament was understood and practiced based on the translation into Greek. New Testament scholars gain access to a version of the Old Testament comparable to what New Testament writers used. Linguists can embark on etymological studies, to compare Septuagint usage of a term with New Testament usage.

Septuaginta

The Logos Septuagintais based on work done at the Center for Computer Analysis of Texts (CCAT) at the University of Pennsylvania. Each word is tagged with its lexical form (or "lemma") and fully morphologically analyzed. English glosses have also been added to each word.

Logos also offers the Lexham Greek-English Interlinear Septuagint. This project takes advantage of its digital environment to offer multiple layers of English glosses that reflect the complexity of the Greek language structure. The first is the lexical value, which is a gloss of the lexical or dictionary form of the word. The second is the English literal translation, a contextually sensitive gloss of the inflected form of the word.

Logos also offers the Göttingen Septuagint. Published between 1931 and 2006, Göttingen Septuagint contains the most authoritative critical apparati of the Greek Old Testament ever assembled. Combining textual evidence from countless manuscripts and ancient sources—including Philo, Josephus, and the Greek Church Fathers—the Göttingen Septuagint is the most detailed and elaborate critical edition of the Septuagint ever published. The Logos edition of Göttingen Septuagint contains 24 volumes divided into 67 resources, with the text of the Septuagint and the critical apparati split into separate files for optimal use in your digital library. In addition to the Greek text and apparati, these volumes also contain a wealth of introductory and supplementary material on the text.

The Parallel Aligned Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Texts of Jewish Scripture

In addition to the morphologically analyzed Septuagint, Logos offers another resource for the student familiar with Hebrew and Greek: The Parallel Aligned Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Texts of Jewish Scripture. This helpful resource uses the Hebrew text as a base, and provides an interlinear lining-up of the Septuagint Greek with the Hebrew words. This type of association is a boon to students who want to study different concepts or topics from the early days of the Old Testament through New Testament usage. Consider C.H. Dodd's statement on the importance of this type of information:

The fundamental document of Hellenistic Judaism is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, commonly known as the Septuagint, which was made, to speak broadly, during the three centuries preceding the Christian Era. Translation is an impossible art, for the words of one language seldom or never convey precisely the same ideas as the corresponding words of another language. Besides philological differences in the words themselves, there are differences in the associations which the words have acquired in different contexts of thought and experience. Thus the words of the Hebrew Scriptures, in passing into Greek, partly lost one set of associations, and partly gained a new set, while at the same time the Greek words used in translation may have acquired something of the value of the Hebrew words they represent. If we can recover in some measure the associations of the Greek words, and compare them with the associations of the Hebrew words, we may do something towards fixing the meaning which the words would henceforth bear in Hellensitic Judaism, and wherever the influence of Hellenistic Judaism extended. (Dodd, C.H., The Bible and the Greeks, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1935, pp. xi-xii.)

Classical Greek lexicons are also helpful in one's study of the Septuagint. Logos offers the Granddaddy of them all: A Greek-English Lexicon, commonly referred to as "Liddell-Scott-Jones", "Liddell & Scott", or simply "LSJ". This is the full, unabridged edition of this classic lexicon with its most recent supplement fully integrated. This is the lexicon used by classicists and biblical scholars alike. Note that Logos also offers the intermediate edition of this lexicon, titled An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, which may prove helpful to obtain shorter abridged definitions of many classical Greek words.

The Library of Hebrew Bible/OT Studies: JSOTS on Nevi'im (7 volumes currently gathering interest on our pre-publication program) contains two books comparing the Septuagint to the Hebrew Bible: The Open and Sealed Book: Jeremiah 32 in its Hebrew and Greek Recensions and When We All Go Home: Translation and Theology in LXX Isaiah 56-66.

Conclusion

Logos Bible Software offers a bounty of resources to assist you with studying the Septuagint. Whether your interest is simple word study or in-depth etymological comparisons, these resources are available to help your study of this valuable yet often overlooked area of Bible study.